TRANSIT took note of this story, describing a strange event where a train bound for Batu Caves ended up going towards Rawang instead. And then the driver decided to back the train up and went back to Batu Caves.
Seriously? Well, not exactly. Apparently the service disruption may have been caused by a jammed switch, forcing trains to use the other side of the wye junction between Putra, Sentul & Segambut stations. That explains why the trains ended up going towards Kepong, switching tracks, and moving “backwards.”
Cranes crashing on platforms, derailments, vehicles flying onto the tracks, hybrid trains, delays, delays and more delays
Is it just us, or are things just getting stranger & stranger on the Malayan Railway?
500 cemas komuter tersasar laluan (Berita Harian, 9 hb. September 2011)
2011/09/09
KUALA LUMPUR: Kira-kira 500 penumpang mengalami saat mencemaskan apabila komuter yang mereka naiki tersasar daripada laluan sebenar sehingga terpaksa berundur semula secara perlahan-lahan sejauh enam kilometer yang mengambil masa lebih satu jam sebelum sampai ke stesen sepatutnya, semalam.
Kejadian berlaku pada waktu puncak jam 6.20 petang apabila komuter yang sarat membawa penumpang dari stesen Bank Negara sepatutnya memasuki laluan ke Batu Caves, tetapi masuk ke laluan arah utara selepas Stesen Putra berdepan The Mall dan terus ke Kepong.
Bagaimanapun, pemandu tiba-tiba menghentikan komuter berkenaan sebelum tiba ke stesen Rawang yang berada beberapa kilometer lagi dan mengundur secara perlahan-lahan setiap lima minit sebelum akhirnya sampai ke Stesen Batu Caves yang mengambil masa lebih satu jam.
Seorang penumpang yang berada dalam tren berkenaan, berkata sebelum kejadian, komuter berkenaan mengalami kelewatan kira-kira setengah jam, menyebabkan penumpang yang kebanyakannya baru pulang dari pejabat semakin bertambah ramai.
“Saya tidak dapat bayangkan betapa takutnya semua penumpang apabila komuter berkenaan berundur dan berhenti setiap lima minit. Apa yang paling kami takuti sekiranya ada komuter lain datang dari arah depan, pastinya berlaku kejadian tidak diingini yang boleh membahayakan keselamatan penumpang.
“Semua penumpang hanya tertanya-tanya sesama sendiri dan gelisah dengan apa yang berlaku kerana tidak ada sebarang pengumuman dibuat oleh pemandu mengenai kejadian berkenaan,” katanya yang menghubungi Berita Harian, semalam.
Sementara itu, Pengurus Kanan Komunikasi Korporat KTMB, Mohd Fazil Ismail mengesahkan kejadian berkenaan yang berpunca daripada poin laluan dari arah stesen Putra ke Sentul terkunci, menyebabkan tren tidak dapat memasuki laluan ke arah Batu Caves, dipercayai akibat kerosakan pada alatan terbabit.
Beliau berkata, pihaknya menerima laporan kejadian jam 6.20 petang dan terakhir berlaku jam 9.45 malam membabitkan lapan tren kesemuanya ke arah laluan yang sama.
TRANSIT Says:
What are we supposed to say? That this shouldn’t happen? That KTMB Management & SPAD need to figure out what is going on with this company?
We’ve said that already – many times. But still, these incidents continue to happen.
Transit Malaysia 
5 replies on “KTM Update: Strange stories never cease (to amaze)”
And this was during peak hour…I just can’t imagine what it must have been like for the passengers. Crammed like sardines for an hour?
I know how uncomfortable the feeling is when I still took the komuter. Just after the Seputeh stop heading towards Mid Valley, the train would stop and wait for a couple of minutes, sometimes with the power off.
During peak periods it was a nightmarish feeling. And that was just for a few minutes.
One hour….geebus.
This is totally horrible
As I am not really sure about what really happened. Anyways, here’s my take on the incident :
8 batu caves bound commuter trains had to make a slight detour at batu junction due to a switch malfunction.
I do not think that this article is trying to convey that 8 trains had to go all the way up to rawang or go up till kepong station (the delay is going to be a lot longer than 1 hour if the train is reversing backwards slowly and making stops every 5 minutes) rather they entered the rawang bound route up to a certain point just before kepong area and reversed back into the branch line. (this is possible because batu junction is actually a triangle.)
as to why the train had to stop every 5 minutes, it is possible that for the first stop, the driver had to walk down to the other end of the commuter train and this took sometime. All the while the driver of the train had to wait his queue at the signals, also the turn in from rawang to batu cave has a bit of vegetation, and I suppose the driver was playing it cautious. The other thing about this is that KTMB was a bit understaffed and the switch which could be manual or auto had to be manned or overridden such that the train may do this special detour.
Back to the malfunctioning switch, personally I think that failures happen, and there is no amount of prevention that can be done to prevent all failures. However, failures may be minimized by higher preventive maintenance.
One other thing that I would like to point out is that thankfully the malfunctioning switch was locked in a full state and not halfway such that it causes a derailment.
One thing that really gets me about this incident is how KTMB is not liable to the hysteria caused (someone may have had a panic attack) on the train, because I am sure the train driver was operating in full control of the rail controller but neither he nor his superior thought anything about informing the passengers about was happening which speaks badly of KTMB’s capacity to handle disasters. Doesn’t KTMB have procedures for this kind of thing? Or were they all lost in the turmoil when they got incorporated.
@kaka
Thank you for the observations. Your last paragraph pretty much says it all.
KTMB has to communicate better. End. of. story. 🙂
Regards, Moaz for TRANSIT
Malaysia Boleh!!!